College of Liberal Arts
Fall 2012
n
vol. 1 no. 1
Anthropology major
Kevin McDaniel’s
next professional step forward
may take him back
thousands of years
College of Liberal Arts
Middle Tennessee State University
www.mtsu.edu/liberalarts
Fall 2012 n vol. 1 no. 1
Dean n
Mark Byrnes
Coordinator n
Connie Huddleston
Development Officer n
Beth Duffield
University Editor n
Drew Ruble
18
Art Director n
Kara Hooper
Designer n
Darrell Callis Burks
Design Assistance n
Brian Evans, Martha Millsaps, Sherry Wiser George
University Photographers n
J. Intintoli, Andy Heidt
Contributing Editors n
Michael Burgin, Bill Fisher
Contributing Writers n
Gina K. Logue, Richard Pace
Special thanks to n
Glen Shepard
College of Liberal Arts is published once per year.
Address changes should be sent to Advancement
Services, MTSU Box 109, Murfreesboro, TN 37132;
alumni@mtsu.edu.
24
15
Other correspondence should be sent to Connie Huddleston, MTSU Box 97, 1301 E. Main St.,
Murfreesboro TN 37132; Connie.Huddleston@mtsu.edu.
3,500 copies printed at Franklin Graphics, Nashville, Tenn.
Design and photography by Creative and Visual Services
at MTSU.
0412-732 – Middle Tennessee State University is an AA/EEO employer
and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex,
disability, or age in its programs and activities. The following person has
been designated to handle inquiries regarding the nondiscrimination policies:
Executive Director of Institutional Equity and Compliance,
1301 E. Main Street, CAB 220, Murfreesboro, TN 37132, 615-898-2185.
Additionally, the MTSU Title IX Coordinator, designated to monitor and
oversee Title IX complaints, may be contacted at: Sam Ingram Building
2269 Middle Tennessee Blvd. Murfreesboro, TN 37132 615-898-5133,
or via this webpage: http://www.mtsu.edu/titleix/.
7
10
College of Liberal Arts Departments
nArt
n English
n Foreign Languages and Literatures
College of Liberal Arts Centers, Institutes, and Programs
nAfrican-American Studies
n Aging Studies
nThe Governor’s School for the Arts
n Center for Historic Preservation
n Geosciences
n History
n Albert Gore Research Center
n Middle East Center
Cover Story
18 n Anthropology major Kevin McDaniel’s next professional step forward may take him back thousands of years
Feature Stories
7 n The People’s Dean
Mark Byrnes brings a record of service and savvy—
with a touch of whimsy—to his newest job.
12 n Featured Speakers
Windham Lecture Series—Sandra Day O’Connor,
retired Supreme Court Justice
Baseball in Literature and Culture Conference
Tommy John, former major league pitcher
15 n Blowing Our Horn
MTSU’s School of Music distinguishes itself by offering a truly retro music education.
24 n Hidden Gems
Tucked away in a nondescript Ezell Hall is a rare museum built stone by stone.
Department News
12
4
n Dean’s Notes
6
n Editor’s Note
10 n Student News
11 n Distinguished Speakers List
22 n No Vanishing Act Feature on Claudia Barnett
13
23 n Faculty News
28 n Alumni News
28 n Hudson on Hudson Feature on Alice Hudson
29 n The Least Among us Feature on Darin Gordon
31 n In Memoriam
n Music
n Philosophy
n Political Science
n Forensic Institute for Research and Education
n University Writing Center
n Sociology and Anthropology
n Global Studies
n Women’s and Gender Studies
n Speech and Theatre
Dean’s Note
W
elcome to the inaugural issue of CLA, the magazine of MTSU’s
College of Liberal Arts. I’m excited about this appealing new way
of telling our college’s story. Special thanks for its development go
to Connie Huddleston, for overseeing the entire project; Drew
Ruble, for his vision and advice; Kara Hooper, who helped in many
ways; and Darrell Callis Burks, who designed the magazine.
The students and faculty of Liberal Arts had a highly successful
2011–12 academic year. The cover story highlights the
accomplishments of just one of our majors. You’ll also find notes
about what some of our other students, and the faculty who teach
them, have been doing. One story deserves particular attention:
two Liberal Arts majors and three faculty members studied and
taught abroad as Fulbright Fellows last year, and two more Liberal
Arts students have won awards for the coming year. The Fulbright
program is among the world’s most prestigious international
exchange programs, and having so many participants in one year
speaks volumes about the quality of our college and University.
Other highlights of the past year include the launch of the
MTSUArts (an effort to celebrate the many fine arts activities on campus and to improve how we publicize them), the visit to
MTSU of former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor,
the start of our new M.A. in International Affairs, and the new
Geosciences concentration in the M.S. in Professional Science
degree. We’re also developing an M.A. in Liberal Arts, which will
be an interdisciplinary degree aimed primarily at adult learners.
I hope you enjoy our new magazine. n photo: Andy Heidt
As you may know, funding for Tennessee public higher education
institutions is now determined in part by how effectively students
are retained in school and, ultimately, how many graduate. Part of
the college’s response to the new funding formula will be to hire a new “graduation coach” to help students better identify and
overcome any academic hurdles they face. Liberal Arts has long
worked to be proactive and student-friendly, and this new staff
member will help us do an even better job in guiding our students
to graduation. In another staff transition, Beth Duffield has joined
us as the college development officer. Beth comes from Columbia
State Community College, where she was director of alumni
relations and community events.
Mark Byrnes, Dean
www.mtsu.edu/liberalarts
4
College of Liberal Arts n Fall 2012
M IDDLE T ENNESSEE S TATE U NIVERSITY
ConneCt
with
MtSU
mtsunews.com
photo: Andy Heidt
Has up-to-the-minute campus news and
features ready when you are—in audio,
video, and print.
• news stories and photo galleries
• video reports
• audio clips and podcasts
• Out of the Blue monthly television
magazine
• On the Record weekly radio program
• links to Facebook and Twitter
Editor’s Note
W
elcome to our new magazine.
Work began in early January to
create the best magazine possible for
our readers—and with the help of
Dean Mark Byrnes and the Creative
and Visual Services Office, I hope you
agree that we have done just that.
After working at MTSU for over 28
years, the experience I have gained will
serve me well in writing about our
outstanding faculty and students and
events on campus sponsored by the
College of Liberal Arts.
In October 2007, the College of
Liberal Arts issued its first newsletter:
Stay Current. For six years we used the newsletter to keep you updated on things happening in the college
and at MTSU. With this new
magazine, we hope to bring you much more information in a more
colorful, interesting format. Let us
hear from you. n
Connie Huddleston, Coordinator
Connie.Huddleston@mtsu.edu
6
College of Liberal Arts n Fall 2012
MTSU Magazine on your iPad
Get the MTSU Mag iPad/iPhone app for weekly online
exclusives, multimedia content you won’t find anywhere
else, and more!
•
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multimedia extras in every issue
weekly online exclusive articles
academic and athletic news feeds
connection to MtSU social media
video features on news and events,
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Join our online alumni community at
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Social Connections
www.facebook.com/mtsublueraiders
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www.youtube.com/mtsunews
The
by Gina K. Logue
People’s
Dean
Mark Byrnes brings a record of service and savvy— with a touch of whimsy— I
to his newest job
f anyone ever makes a Mark Byrnes
bobblehead doll, it won’t happen because his ego suddenly inflated his head. From one’s first glimpse of the bobbleheads, bumper stickers, and other
political paraphernalia prominently displayed in Byrnes’s Todd
Hall office, it is apparent that becoming dean of the College of
Liberal Arts did not deflate his sense of whimsy.
Byrnes is responsible for approximately 3,400 majors in a college
that averages more than 600 graduates annually. Combine that with a faculty of 315 full-time professors and 165 adjuncts and the
weight of the responsibility would leave many educators cowering in the corner. Instead, this homegrown scholar, who has written books about President James K. Polk and Tennessee government, surrounds
himself with a bipartisan array of political playthings. “Maybe I’m still a kid at heart,” Byrnes says.
With a little human assistance, the bobbleheads of four Founding
Fathers nod in agreement as Barack Obama and John McCain
bobbleheads look on. “I’m not really a serious collector,” says Byrnes,
who estimates he has been collecting campaign buttons and other
political items for about 15 years. “I’ll go through stages when I acquire
a lot, and then I don’t acquire anything for awhile.”
What Byrnes has acquired, even before he interned at the Tennessee
General Assembly in 1983, is a heartfelt yet realistic belief in the
democratic process that no scandal or scalawag at the local, state, or
national level has been able to convert into cynicism. He was elected
to the Rutherford County Board of Education in 2004. His peers
elected him chair for four years and vice chair for three.
This year, as he and his wife, Julie, and daughters Rachel and Abby
prepared to settle into a new home outside their old school board
district, Byrnes declined to run again. But his public service not only
helped the political science professor reconcile academic theory and real-world political practice. It also informed his work as a representative
of the University community.
Continued on page 8
photo: Andy Heidt
College of Liberal Arts n Fall 2012
7
The People’s Dean
Continued from page 7
In a broader sense, Byrnes says, it’s good for University personnel to be involved in civic life, especially since one of the tenets of MTSU’s
Academic Master Plan is the establishment of partnerships. “Being a
dean is primarily about dealing with people, and, for that matter, so is being an elected official,” he says.
Family First
Byrnes’s calm approachability was severely challenged in the summer of 2005 when his youngest daughter, Abby, contracted an E. coli
infection, possibly during an outing at a pick-your-own strawberry
patch, and suffered a stroke at the age of three.
from MTSU in 1983. (He earned a diploma in international and
comparative politics from the London School of Economics and
master’s and doctorate degrees in political science from Vanderbilt.)
The economic downturn has empowered those who see a university
merely as a ticket to a more lucrative career. Indeed, in light of the
unemployment rate, some even question the value of any four-year
degree. Byrnes, however, insists that a traditional liberal arts education
enhances individual growth and produces better contributors to society. He points to MTSU’s liberal arts graduates as evidence that
their courses of study prepared them for gainful employment in
meaningful careers.
We have graduates from all of our programs
doing great things around the nation and the world
“It’s hard to overstate what a traumatic thing that was,” Byrnes says,
recalling that time of horrendous uncertainty. “Just days short of her fourth birthday, she went from a typical, active child to a little girl who could, essentially, do nothing for herself. In the immediate
aftermath of the stroke, she was completely helpless. She couldn’t walk. She couldn’t sit up. She couldn’t talk. She couldn’t eat. And she was blind.” (Her cognitive skills were unaffected)
“We’ve got political science students who are lawyers, lobbyists, and
government workers,” Byrnes notes. “We’ve got historians who are not
only professional historians but [who are also] working at historic sites
or museums. On the other hand, we’ve got people from both of those
disciplines and others who are working in banking or business or real
estate. We have graduates from all of our programs doing great things
around the nation and the world.”
Abby’s illness affected the entire family. Nevertheless, faith, superb health care, and support from University personnel pulled the family through the crisis, and they emerged stronger and more
united than ever.
In fact, Byrnes asserts, the skills acquired through a liberal arts education
are easily transferable—something employers say they need in their
workers. “We live in an era in which the economy changes rapidly, jobs
change rapidly, and expectations for those jobs are constantly evolving,”
he says. “So highly technical training that is useful today might not be
useful five years down the road. But if you can read something and
understand it, or if you can write a coherent paragraph or effectively
articulate your ideas orally, that’s going to be helpful regardless of the
twists and turns the economy takes.” Byrnes says MTSU’s budget has
been remarkably stable despite a $30 million cut in state funding in
2010. His college, like all the others, is trying to adapt to the new
funding formula and put an even greater focus on retention and
graduation while maintaining academic standards.
Through hard work with Special Kids, a nonprofit organization, and
teachers and therapists from Murfreesboro City Schools, plus Julie’s
nurturing, Abby has recovered much of her physical ability and some of her vision. His daughter’s illness led Byrnes to put several things into perspective. “The issues of what grades our kids make, what
schools they attend, and what careers they pick are important, but
they’re not the most important things in life,” he says.
That doesn’t mean Daddy has forsaken his erudite side. Byrnes says his children give him good-natured grief on family vacations because he stops at historic tourist attractions only a policy wonk could love.
“They regard this as a form of torture,” Byrnes jokes. “Maybe 20 years
from now they’ll look back fondly, or perhaps I’ve scarred them
permanently. I’m not sure.”
Champion of the Liberal Arts
While the young Byrnes children’s attitudes toward education are still in their formative stages, societal attitudes toward the liberal arts have
changed since Byrnes earned his bachelor’s degree in political science
8
College of Liberal Arts n Fall 2012
So how does Byrnes cope with all these weighty issues without
becoming either a stuffed shirt or an empty suit? “I hope I don’t take on a different persona just because my job title has changed,” he says. “I don’t think you change the fundamentals of who you are just to carry out the next position. It’s a hard one for me to answer because
that’s the kind of self-reflection I try to avoid at all costs.”
So, since his job provides little time for advanced navel-gazing, Mark Byrnes, the academic with the bipartisan toy collection, brings the self-reflection to an end and gets back to work. n
The Team Behind the Dean
Dean Byrnes is quick to credit the college’s successes to his 10-person
administrative staff, hailing their good-natured efficiency and
professionalism. “The college couldn’t operate without them,” he says.
“We regard ourselves as a service unit. Our job is to serve the faculty
and the students—to facilitate the academic work that they do inside
and outside the classroom. I’m fortunate to have such a good group of
people working for me.”
“Byrnes’s relationship with MTSU has
progressed though several levels—from
student to professor to administrator. He knows this institution, the groups that he leads
and [the people] for whom he advocates. I believe
this makes him empathetic, insightful, and
knowledgeable. It also makes him less naïve.”
Dr. Hilary Stallings
photos: Andy Heidt
Judy Albakry
Beth Duffield
Marion Gwyn
Connie Huddleston
Advisor
Development officer
Local service provider
Coordinator
Kathy Jones Lucy Langworthy
Jan Leone
Karen Petersen
Graduation coordinator Advisor
Interim associate dean
Assistant dean
“I like working with
Mark because he does
not micromanage his
staff. He trusts us to
do our jobs but also
challenges us to do
them well.”
Anjali Sarvaria
Peggy Slater
Hilary Stallings
Executive secretary
Executive aide
Manager of recruitment and resources
Dr. Lucy Langworthy
College of Liberal Arts n Fall 2012
9
Student News
(l to r) Orlando Martinez,
Alex Chambers
Students of Japanese:
Smart Talk!
The fifth annual Tennessee Area Japanese Speech Contest was held April 7, 2012, at Vanderbilt University. The regional level contest invited
52 Japanese language students from nine universities and offered an
invaluable opportunity for them to compete. MTSU sent eight
contestants to the three-tiered competition; all of them were impressively
fluent, and two of them stood out. The overall Grand Prize (for the best
speech in the entire competition) went to Seth Graves, who received two
round-trip tickets to Japan, courtesy of American Airlines. Alex Chambers
won first prize in Level 2 (intermediate). MTSU contestants had the
advantage of a dedicated Japanese language faculty: Priya Ananth
(program coordinator and assistant professor), Noriko Mori (lecturer),
Chiaki Shima (adjunct instructor), and Saori Endo (graduate teaching
assistant). Other MTSU competitors were Ryan Parrow and Shannon
Laney (Level 1); Mitchell Plummer, Andrew Witt, and Tyler Whitaker
(Level 2); and Preston Nalls (Level 3). n
(l to r) Yukari Ishii, Seth Graves, Norio Inaba
Traffic
Alert
Students in a Human Rights course taught by John
Maynor, associate professor of political science,
presented a free public symposium on human
trafficking during the spring semester. Gathered experts included Colette Bercu, founder and director of Free for Life International, an area organization that works with victims of trafficking abroad; Sheila
McClain of Magdalene House/Thistle Farms, a
Nashville-based residential program and social
enterprise that helps women, including trafficking
victims; and Special Agent Jason Wilkerson of the
Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. The group discussed human trafficking in Tennessee.
According to the Department of Justice, federal
antitrafficking task forces opened 2,515 suspected cases of human trafficking in the U.S. between 2008 and 2010. Of those incidents, 82 percent were classified as sex trafficking. Nearly half involved people under the age of 18. Doctors at War Against Trafficking
Worldwide (a nonprofit founded by Daniel Bercu,
Colette’s husband), estimates that 27 million people
worldwide—including 13 million children—are trapped in slavery.
The symposium grew out of a course developed with a
curriculum integration grant from the MTSU President’s
Commission on the Status of Women. n
Lauren Camfield, geology student, recently worked
as a research intern at the American Museum of
Natural History in New York (a National Science
Foundation internship). n
10
College of Liberal Arts n Fall 2012
CLA News
Distinguished Speakers:
MTSU art students won big at the recent Student ADDY Awards
banquet held by American Advertising Federation Nashville. Stefanie
Cobb took Best in Show and won a Gold ADDY for her mixed media
campaign “Strangeluv, or How to Stop Worrying and Learn to Luv the
Future.” Jefferson Rodriguez won a Gold ADDY for packaging design.
The following students won Silver ADDYs: Jenna Russell (mixed media
campaign), Yi Hsuan Lui (packaging), Aaron Johnson, (brochure),
Megan Coyne (two ADDYs—brochure and letterpress calendar), Katie
Clagg (letterpress calendar), and Zac Rooks (direct marketing). n
Liberal Arts
Leads the Way
Students, faculty, and the public have enjoyed
many prominent speakers because of the
Windham Lecture Series, the Strickland
Lecture, and a number of other events and
conferences sponsored by the College of
Liberal Arts. A short list of such speakers,
certainly not all, is below.
Sandra Day O’Connor
The MTSU Symphony, directed by Dr. Carol Nies, was honored to
feature the internationally known
Italian mezzo-soprano Caterina
Novak in an outstanding
performance of excerpts from Bizet’s Carmen at a concert on April 22. School of Music students
Sarah Wofford, Katie Spencer,
Corbin Phillips, William Duke, and Andrew Noble joined Novak
on stage. Novak also presented two very dynamic master classes in vocal performance, stagecraft,
and Italian diction.
MTSU student soloists turned in impressive performances with the symphony
last season. Andrew England, a senior, was the featured horn soloist for the third
movement (scherzo) of Mahler’s powerful Symphony No. 5. Graduate student
Tara Kloostra performed the first movement of Mozart’s Horn Concerto No. 3,
and senior Maureen Moeller performed Hanson’s Serenade for Flute, Harp, and
Strings with the MTSU Chamber Orchestra. n
Student Fulbright News
• Daniel Gouger (Spanish and Biochemistry) Research Fulbright to Spanish, graduate Spring 2012
• Anna Yacovone (Global Studies and Organizational Communication) graduated December 2011. Works in study abroad office, Teaching Fulbright to Laos.
• In 2011–12 Patrick Pratt (International Relations) had a research Fulbright to Tanzania and Kimberly Yarborough (International Relations and Spanish) had a teaching Fulbright to Spain.
See O’Connor article on page 12
Robert Olen Butler
Richard Marius Bill Lee
Michael Nelson
Jimmy Faulkner
Jane Alexander
Nell Irvin Painter
Rory Kennedy
William Bass Bela Fleck
David McCullough
Douglas Brinkley
Mark Bitman
Donald Relford
Jared Diamond
Denny McLain
Nina Totenberg
Tommy John
See John article on page 13
Whether the topic is books, baseball,
forensics, or music,
the college has a
long history of
engaging some of the most interesting
academic, intellectual, and cultural figures of our time. The College of Liberal Arts tradition of bringing the most thought-provoking
and stimulating speakers to MTSU will continue! n
College of Liberal Arts n Fall 2012
11
Justice O’Connor with Bill and Doris Windham,
Diane Windham Shaw, and Becky Windham.
The 21st Annual
Windham Lecture Series
took place this year on
February 8 with retired
Supreme
Court Justice
Sandra Day
O’Connor
After months of communication through agents and representatives, the College of Liberal Arts and the Windham Lecture Series completed
arrangements to bring retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor to campus as the 21st Windham Lecturer. The Provost’s Office and the College of Liberal Arts hosted a reception for O’Connor and local dignitaries before her lecture, where Justice O’Connor met and spoke with guests
about her career and family life. Following the reception, O’Connor
spoke at the T. Earl Hinton Hall in Wright Music Building to an
overlfow crowd about her appointment to the Supreme Court by
President Ronald Reagan. O’Connor told of her first meeting with
Reagan, after which he called her and said, “Sandra, I want to put you
before the Senate for the Justice position.”
“Well, what do you say to the President?” said O’Connor. “Yes sir, thank you.”
O’Connor rose from a hardworking ranch family in the American West, and she rode horses before she could walk. On the family’s 12
College of Liberal Arts n Fall 2012
Lazy B Ranch, she learned the valuable lessons of hard work and fairness. After studying at Radford School, a private academy for girls, O’Connor attended Stanford University and received a B.A. (with Great Distinction). She completed her LL.B. in 1952, graduating third in her class and serving on the Stanford Law Review. O’Connor
married John Jay O’Connor III in 1952, and the couple raised three sons.
Before the Supreme Court, O’Connor was deputy county attorney of
San Mateo County, California, from 1952 to 1953; a civilian attorney
for Quartermaster Market Center, Frankfurt, Germany, from 1954 to
1957; and from 1958 to 1960, she practiced law in Maryvale, Arizona.
She was assistant attorney general of Arizona from 1965 to 1969. She
became an Arizona state senator in 1969 and served two terms, during
which she became the first woman state senate majority leader in the
United States. In 1975, O’Connor was elected judge of the Maricopa
County Superior Court and served until 1979, when she was appointed
to the Arizona Court of Appeals. Then on September 25, 1981, after
President Reagan’s nomination and the Senate’s approval, she was Right of Spring
W
inset photos: Andy Heidt
ith spring comes the first day of baseball and also the annual Baseball in Literature and Culture Conference at
MTSU. English Department professors Ron Kates and Warren
Tormey co-chair the conference, which brings together baseball
scholars from around the country to talk about their research and
listen to a speech by a baseball great.
President McPhee meets with O’Connor before the event.
When she was appointed O’Connor said,
“I think the important thing about my appointment is not that
I will decide cases as a woman, but that
I am a woman who will get to decide cases.”
named associate justice of the Supreme Court, the first woman to serve on the highest court in the United States.
When she was appointed O’Connor said, “I think the important thing about my appointment is not that I will decide cases as a woman, but that I am a woman who will get to decide cases.”
Justice O’Connor retired in January 2006, but she continues to serve her country, devoting much of her time to a project very dear to her—iCivics (www.icivics.org), an online education program to support and teach civics to teachers and students. It is Justice O’Connor’s hope that this tool will teach and encourage students to become better citizens. n
This year, former major league pitcher Tommy John headlined the conference. John talked about his 26-year career in the majors
and also about the surgery he endured to prolong his career – a common medical procedure now synonymous with John’s name.
Growing up in Terre Haute, Indiana, John was a self-described
baseball junkie. Seeing that his son had natural talent, John’s father got him special training in how to throw a sinker ball – a pitch John perfected. Though he was valedictorian of his high
school class, and college would have been the natural progression,
John chose baseball instead. He signed with the Cleveland Indians
straight out of high school.
It was during a stint with the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1970s that John suffered the elbow injury that was famously repaired by a then-pioneering procedure called ulnar collateral ligament
reconstruction, which quickly became popularly known as “Tommy John surgery.” After 18 months of recovery, John was back on the mound. He went on to pitch and win more games after his surgery than he did before it.
A four-time All-Star, John won the 1976 Hutch Award (which
recognizes competitive spirit), the 1976 National League Comeback Player of the Year award, and the 1981 Lou Gehrig
Memorial Award. John now spends his time advising young
ballplayers and speaking publicly about his life in baseball.
In his speech at MTSU,
John emphasized that
high school graduates
going straight to the Major Leagues don’t have to sacrifice
college since Major
League Baseball now
pays college tuition for players who enroll at a university within
two years of retiring
from the game. n
photo: Andy Heidt
College of Liberal Arts n Fall 2012
13
Middle Tennessee State University is pleased to introduce
MTSU Arts, your ticket to the hundreds of visual and
performing arts events held on campus each year. Everyone
is welcome—all performances are open to the public. We
invite you to join us for the featured events listed here as
well as many others you’ll find listed on the calendar at
www.mtsuarts.com
2012–2013 Highlights
Art
Forms of Expression: A Survey in
Contemporary Clay, October 17–November 1
12x12 Exhibition, January 17–February 14, 2013
Dance
Fall Dance Concert, November 29–30
Spring Dance Concert, April 25–27, 2013
Music
Handel’s Messiah, December 2–3
The Magic Flute, January 24–25, 2013
Robert McDonald, piano, April 7, 2013
Theater
Titus Andronicus, November 7–11
A Funny Thing Happened on
the Way to the Forum, April 4–13, 2013
Support the arts! Your patronage will help keep the arts
at MTSU vibrant and will support the University’s role
as a cultural catalyst in middle Tennessee. Please consider
supporting artistic development and student enrichment
with a charitable gift to MTSU Arts by contacting
Beth Duffield, development director, at (615) 898-5223.
MTSU’s
School of Music
distinguishes itself by offering a
I
truly retro music education
n the 18th century, or the late Baroque and Classical
periods, orchestral music was the privilege of, well,
the privileged. Composers like Haydn earned their living writing
and performing music for dukes and duchesses and their private
audiences. But as the middle class began to rise and the aristocracy
exerted less economic dominance, the patronage system began to
wither. Composers were pushed out of the palaces and down more
entrepreneurial musical paths. Artists such as Mozart and Beethoven
not only wrote symphonies and concertos but also booked theaters
and even sold the tickets to their performances. And since playing to bigger and bigger audiences meant making a better living, such
performances moved into bigger and bigger concert halls, which
required revolutionary changes in the instruments— and a change in the roles of some instruments—to adapt to increasingly larger
performing spaces, which simply demanded louder playing.
Consider the oboe, which in Baroque times was used mostly to double the string section. With the new demand for volume, the
oboe’s function (and thereby its design) changed in order for it to
function as a prominent solo instrument above the orchestra for brief intervals, then to duck back into an accompanying role.
Similarly, the violin emerged from its role as a quiet instrument used primarily for dance and was refashioned to produce a brighter
sound with a raised pitch, making it more dominant. Alterations in bows, in particular, produced more volume and sustained phrasing. Significant change also came to the harpsichord, a keyboard instrument, which plucks strings to make a beautiful by Drew Ruble
but modest sound. The early pianoforte, which we know today as the piano, used small hammers instead of a plucking mechanism.
Musicians then could play soft (“piano”) or loud (“forte”), and
composers had many new ways to incorporate nuance into keyboard phrasings. These changes (and others) led to the modern orchestra.
George Riordan, director of the MTSU School of Music, is an oboist who is equally deft at the Baroque, Classical, and modern versions of his instrument. He points out that the evolution of orchestral
instruments—while needed—did not necessarily mean improvement
in all aspects. “All this change was great in terms of reaching larger
audiences, but it also required tradeoffs,” Riordan says. “You’re solving
one problem but maybe creating another one. For instance, you add
volume but lose something of the expressive nature of the instrument
when you change it to fit different circumstances.” Riordan says
altering the basic sound and response of instruments also changed the musician’s approach to the music. “This meant performers altered
the way that they played the older music to better fit their modernized
instruments. In the process, many stylistic elements from the 17th and 18th centuries were lost, and performance of older works became
profoundly different from the original conceptions of the composers.”
How does all this history apply to MTSU’s School of Music? Due to
the wealth of period instruments—and faculty specialists—at MTSU, the University has an unusual advantage over many institutions with
similar music schools in that its students gain more exposure to the “root” instruments that apply to their chosen concentrations. Continued on page 16
College of Liberal Arts n Fall 2012
15
Continued from page 15
For instance, trombonists at MTSU can
experiment with the sackbut, a Renaissance
instrument, and might even get a chance to perform with it. Others might perform on Baroque trumpet or horn. “In doing so, they begin to understand what it felt like to
play these instruments 300 years ago—and there are
profound differences,” Riordan explains. “When our
students get a chance to pick up and play around with these period instruments, it gives them fresh
ideas to apply to the modern instruments.”
The use of historical instruments by faculty members is a matter of research into and pedagogical
enhancement of the study of modern instruments—it’s not really an end in itself at MTSU.
“Our main mission in terms of our students’ applied music
performance is to help them
become the best performers on their ‘native’ instruments, that is, the modern versions, but older instruments can help inform performers about the stylistic
intent behind older music,” says Riordan.
Is such an infusion of period-instrument knowledge common at other music schools? While programs such as those at the Juilliard
School in New York and Indiana University have whole divisions
devoted to period instruments, most universities boast, at best, a
faculty member or two who might be interested in period
performance (usually a pianist who might also play harpsichord). “To have all these Baroque instruments in our instrumentarium at MTSU, the faculty members who play them, and students who can use them and to have it all integrated into the curriculum is unusual,” Riordan says.
Such period-specific instruction is a trend in higher education, and it’s also shifting the classical music landscape. According to Riordan, many performers today are capable of creating compelling performances of Baroque and Classical music on modern instruments, but many now choose to perform on
instruments typically in use at the time that the music was composed. “The thinking of these period-instrument performers is that the old versions of instruments more readily allow
for the re-creation of the music in the ways that the composer
intended, resulting in a more historically informed performance,”
he explains.
Given their significant exposure to period instrumentation, MTSU School of Music students can be considered to be on
the leading edge of the period-instrument movement. n
When our students get a chance to pick up and play around with these period instruments, it gives
them fresh ideas to apply to the modern instruments.
16
photos: J. Intintoli
A Band of All Time
Some 10 full-time MTSU School of Music faculty members play on
17th- and 18th-century period instruments and are able to recreate
the style the composers would have expected, so that their music
may be heard with all its original color and passion. Here is a brief
1
look at some MTSU School of Music faculty members who are
rooted in the Baroque style.
1 Angela Tipps, organ
2 Michael Arndt, trumpet
3 Angela DeBoer, valveless Classical-period natural horn
4 David Loucky, trombone, sackbut, ophicleide
4
3
5 George Riordan, oboe
6 Jessica Dunnavant, flute
2
7 Christine Kim, cello
8 William Yelverton, guitar, lute, theorbo
9 Andrea Dawson, violin
Not pictured: Lillian Pearson, harpsichord and fortepiano
7
9
5
6
8
College of Liberal Arts n Fall 2012
17
by Richard Pace
I
magine yourself, machete in hand, hacking your way through the dense Amazon
rainforest. You are often in knee-high water,
fighting back hordes of mosquitoes and
keeping a wary eye open for snakes and spiders.
Imagine that after days of hardship and frustration you
happen upon a major archaeological site, previously
unknown, that stretches for miles. Hidden under the forest
canopy, the site is almost completely intact and has up to five feet of cultural deposition. Your companion archaeologists
gleefully explain the importance of the site—a major prehistoric
thoroughfare between two prominent cultures (Marajó and
Santarém) that might date back 4,000 years or more. Excavations
could last a decade and provide material to help fill in huge gaps
in the archaeological record of the region.
If you’re MTSU student Kevin McDaniel, this is not some
adolescent fantasy or expedition shown on the Discovery
Channel; this is actually how McDaniel, an anthropology
major (and Portuguese studies minor), spent his 2012 spring
break. Through the support and guidance of MTSU
anthropology professors Richard Pace and Tanya Peres
Lemons, Kevin was able to participate in the initial joint
MTSU/Goeldi Museum project to survey the municipality of Gurupá. (The Goeldi Museum is a prominent research
institute in Belém, Brazil, famous for its pioneering
archaeological and ethnographic studies in the Amazon over
the last 150 years.) The MTSU/Goeldi project was partially
funded by a grant secured from the Faculty Research and
Creative Activity Committee (FRCAC) by Drs. Pace and Peres
to study the historical ecology of the region. The project,
which integrates the fields of archaeology, history, and cultural
anthropology, seeks to understand past humanenvironmental relationships and subsistence practices and
apply this knowledge to contemporary attempts to improve
rain forest preservation and sustainable development.
Kevin’s preparation for this expedition actually started two years earlier as he began his studies of archaeology, Brazilian
18
College of Liberal Arts n Fall 2012
photos: Glenn Shepard
culture and Portuguese. He conducted a literature review on Amazonian prehistory as an independent study project. He also spent the summer of 2011 studying abroad in Brazil
with the Tennessee Consortium for International Studies
(TnCIS). Finally, with funding support from the Provost’s
Office and the FRCAC grant, he was ready for the trip. Kevin first traveled to Belém, a city of two million situated at the mouth of the Amazon River. There, he met up with Dr. Pace, who was in Brazil on a Fulbright Scholarship for the year. Dr. Pace introduced Kevin to his archaeological
companions, João Aires and Carlos Barbosa, both researchers
at the Goeldi Museum. After several days of prepping for the
field at the museum and acclimating to the climate (it was the middle of the tropical rainy reason), Kevin was ready for
the final leg of the trip. The destination was Gurupá, a small
peasant community on the Amazon River approximately 300 miles upstream. Kevin boarded a large passenger boat for
the 26-hour ride upriver, accompanied by his archaeology
colleagues, Dr. Pace and his wife, Olga, their daughter, Annie,
and a third Goeldi Museum researcher, ethnobotanist Glenn
Shepard. The Pace family and Shepard were filming for an
ethnographic documentary—a parallel project conducted
alongside the archaeological expedition.
Once in Gurupá, the group rented a boat to take them into the rain forest for five days. They slept in hammocks on the
boat and ate their meals there, as well. The first two days were
spent on the várzea, or flooded forest, along the Mojú River (a tributary of the Amazon). Here, the museum archaeologists
predicted a range of sites using computer models based on
research from Marajó Island (a swampy ecosystem occupied by a large chiefdom around A.D. 1000). The group first
interviewed local residents, then set off in canoes with volunteer
guides to examine areas with a high probability of ancient
occupation. For Kevin, it was a crash course on flooded forests.
For hours, he trudged through the waterlogged terrain, finding
only small islands of dry ground, wiping scores of mosquitoes off his body every minute or so, and cooled only by the periodic
downpours that pelted him. The local guides commented on
his perseverance in these challenging conditions, later telling
him that in any other circumstance, they would avoid these
places during the rainy season.
Despite heroic efforts the first few days, all was for naught. Not a single artifact or any other sign of prehistoric occupation
was found. Nature, on the other hand, was impressive. Exotic
birds and insects were everywhere. Kevin was especially
impressed when one of the guides stopped along the inundated
trail they were following, reached down between his feet and
began pulling out catfish barehanded—enough to feed his
family for the night.
After two days of frustration and fruitless searching, the
archaeologists decided to take the boat to the terra firme—
or high land that remained above the seasonal flooding. Here they knew there were archaeological sites, recorded in previous visits by other researchers. What was not known was the extent of these sites and their importance to the archaeological record. The boat docked for the night at Carrezedo, a small hamlet whose people lived in houses built on stilts along a long boardwalk rising above the Xingu River (another
Amazon tributary). The inhabitants told of anthropogenic
soils—what they called black dirt of the Indian (terra preta do índio)—and bits of broken ceramic—both good signs of prehistoric occupation.
Anthropology major
Kevin McDaniel’s next professional
step forward may take him back
thousands of years
The next day the intrepid archaeologists set off with a new guide. They walked behind the settlement to an area used for crop production—mostly manioc and corn grown in slash-and-burn plots typical of the region. As they dug into the ground with machetes (the Amazon equivalent of shovel
testing), they found inches, then feet of the rich, black
anthropogenic soil that comes from long-term human
occupation. Intermixed with the dark soil were many
Continued on page 20
College of Liberal Arts n Fall 2012
19
Continued from page 20
expected. Second, using his computer
models, the museum had a better idea of
novel cultural tradition, heretofore unknown to Amazon archaeology where to look. With this information in
hand, they went through the hardship of
ceramic fragments. Kevin handed a pottery fragment he had
hacking through the rain forest to look just uncovered to Carlos, the pottery specialist, who examined
at areas off the beaten path. Although never a foolproof
the piece and then exclaimed that this and other uncovered
method, as they found out on the várzea, it struck
artifacts they were finding, clearly represented a novel cultural
archaeological gold on the terra firme.
tradition, heretofore unknown to Amazon archaeology.
Two weeks later, Kevin returned to his classes at MTSU, Beaming, João turned to Kevin and said, “This is new. tired but excited about his experience and about his future. This is all new.”
The expedition strengthens his candidacy for admittance to a
Over the next three days the archaeologists found three more
highly ranked graduate school specializing in South American
mega-sites—all in succession along the Amazon River. Two of
archaeology. (After all, he already knows of a great place to the sites were at least a half-mile in length. They measured the
do his dissertation research.) As for MTSU, the initial sites, recorded their locations and wrote up their notes. project with the Goeldi Museum will lead to more research
When asked why these sites were not previously found and
opportunities in archaeology, cultural anthropology and recorded, João gave two answers. First, only rapid
other related disciplines. MTSU’s 12-year presence in
archaeological surveys had been conducted in the expansive
Amazonian research should continue with great promise. n
region. Thus, missing sites—even big ones—was to be
The pottery specialist, who examined the piece and then exclaimed that this
and other uncovered artifacts they were finding,
Richard Pace, Kevin
McDaniel, João Aires
(l to r) examining
archaeological finds
from Gurupá.
20
College of Liberal Arts n Fall 2012
clearly represented a
MTSU is committed to developing
Every new student at MTSU takes the
True Blue Pledge at convocation. The
a community devoted to learning,
growth, and service. We hold these pledge commits each new Blue Raider
to practice the core values of honesty
values dear, and there’s a simple
and integrity; have respect for diverphrase that conveys them:
sity; engage in the community; and
“I am True Blue.”
“I am True Blue” and “True commit to reason, not violence. For
members of the faculty and adminBlue” are the expressions
istration, pledging to be True Blue
of MTSU’s brand. It
signals a renewed commitment to the
represents a studentsuccess of students. In short, True Blue
centric culture in all
stands for the very best of what Blue
aspects of MTSU’s
operations; the Uni- Raiders expect from one another.
versity’s standing as MTSU, now more than a century old,
an accessible, afford- offers terrific opportunities, exceptional
able and quality insti- value and a beautiful campus. No
wonder it is the No. 1 choice of
tution; and its goal to
provide the options and undergraduates in Tennessee, as
well as the No. 1 choice of our
opportunities of a major
state’s transfer students and veterans.
comprehensive university
while retaining small-college
roots and approaches to
student success.
True Blue!
Find out more at
www.mtsu.edu/trueblue
Brook Huffman (‘13)
Music major
MTSU is an AA/EEO employer.
Faculty News
No Vanishing Act
Claudia Barnett’s stature as a
writer and playwright continues to grow
C
laudia Barnett says her playwriting career started when she submitted a one-act play to a little theater in Michigan “and then forgot about it.” A few months later, the theater
tracked her down, seeking permission to produce the play. She drove to Kalamazoo, saw the
production (which she described as “wonderful”), and was especially struck when one female
audience member told her after the play that all young girls should see it. Inspired, Barnett
sent the play to Dramatics, a magazine for younger audiences, which published it.
Barnett’s ascent in playwriting has continued from that point on. An MTSU English professor,
she writes about missing women, women who kill, and women who are silenced. In September
2011, based on only the first two scenes of her play Witches Vanish, she was chosen for the
Downstage Left Playwright Residency at Chicago’s Stage Left Theatre. At the time, she’d
written only 20 pages. She traveled to Chicago six times during the year to complete the first
draft, working with her director and five actresses. The characters are Macbeth’s witches, who
explore the stories of women who disappear. The witches travel from the Spanish Inquisition
to the Soviet gulag to Juarez, Mexico. The play had a workshop production as part of Stage
Left’s LeapFest in May and June.
As playwright-in-residence at Tennessee Repertory Theatre in 2009–2010, she experimented
with poetry, madness, and time in her full-length play No. 731 Degraw-Street, Brooklyn; or
Emily Dickinson’s Sister. In 2012, she attended a conference in Spain to present a staged
reading of He Killed My Bird; or Now that We’re in Heaven, a one-act play inspired by her
Honors sophomore literature course, Women Who Kill, which covers Medea and Macbeth;
20th-century examples, Machinal and The Little Foxes; and all the way to
contemporary plays by Carson Kreitzer, Rebecca Gilman, and Suzan-Lori
Parks. “You’d be amazed at how many plays by contemporary
American women are about women who kill,” she says. Her latest
published work is I Love You Terribly, a book of six short plays.
Engaging with her craft,
Barnett can’t help but pass her
enthusiasm and
love of writing
to her students.
22
College of Liberal Arts n Fall 2012
Through it all, Barnett maintains a laid-back attitude and lifestyle in
Murfreesboro. She lives in a log cabin outside of town, surrounded by a few acres of trees—a place that she says feeds her creativity.
Originally from a bustling city in New York, she says she loves silence,
fresh air, and the deer in her yard. She gets her best writing ideas while yanking out weeds.
Barnett first joined the MTSU faculty in 1994 after completing her Ph.D. at Ohio State University. She has been instrumental in
developing the Visiting Artist Seminar on campus, and she has
brought many excellent guests to MTSU, including actress/
playwright Heather Raffo, filmmaker Jesse Epstein, and songwriter
Nathan Bell. As a teacher, she is especially proud of one of her
former students, Margaret Hoffman. Both Barnett and Hoffman
had plays produced by Independent Actors Theatre in Columbia,
Missouri, in March. Engaging with her craft, Barnett can’t help but pass her enthusiasm and love of writing to her students. n
Faculty News
Nancy Rupprecht (History),
Kenneth Scherzer (History),
and James Williams (director, Gore Research
Center).
Janice Leone, associate dean of the college, served as editor
of Middle Tennessee State
University: A Centennial Legacy.
Chapter contributors were Fred P. Colvin (History,
emeritus), Derek Frisby
(History), Ellen Garrison
(History), Jordan Kirkman
(alum), Reuben Kyle
(Economics, emeritus), John Lodl (alum), Philip
Mathis (Biology, emeritus),
Rebecca McIntyre (History),
Lorne McWatters (History),
David Rowe (History), Jennifer Vannatta Hall,
assistant professor of music,
served on the Tennessee Arts
Commission’s 2012 Citizen
Advisory Panel.
Shirley Farris Jones (retired secretary, Department
of Foreign Languages and
Literatures) spent last winter
coauthoring a book on
Murfreesboro in the Civil War. Jones has worked tirelessly on journals her family preserved, and from them comes The Un-Civil War
in Middle Tennessee, published
by the History Press of
Charleston, South Carolina.
The Forensic Institute for Research and Education
(FIRE) brought Dr. William M. Bass, founder of
UT-Knoxville’s famed Body Farm, to campus for the
Legends in Forensic Science 2012 Spring Lecture, which
attracted a crowd of over 2,000 people. FIRE also hosted
the 2012 Organized Crime Symposium (Forensic Skeletal
Search and Recovery) course during the summer and also
hosted CSI: MTSU Summer Camp for high school
students. The Student Organization Awards Committee
named Dr. Hugh Berryman, the institute’s director,
Outstanding Advisor of the Year and recognized the
Middle Tennessee
Forensic Science
Society (MTFSS)
as Organization
of the Year.
Professor Erin Anfinson (Art) led the way for ten of her art students and ten mass
communication students to
work with touring artists/
animators Tiny Circus in April.
The group created a work of
stop-motion animation.
Robert Bray (English), a noted
Tennessee Williams scholar, is
coeditor of two upcoming
books from Cambridge
University Press: Modern
American Drama on Screen, and
Modern British Drama on
Screen. Included in the former is
Bray’s essay “A Streetcar Named
Desire: Just ‘Shoot the Play.’”
Bonnie B. Rushlow (pictured)
was selected by the National Art Education Association to receive the 2012 National
Art Educator of the Year Award at the NAEA National
Convention in New York, March
1-4, 2012.
John Donovan (Art) received
the Tennessee Arts Commission
Individual Artist Fellowship in
Craft Media for 2011-12.
William Canak (Sociology and
Anthropology) became a
member of the Tennessee
Employee Mis-classification
Advisory Task Force, a unit of
the Department of Labor and
Workforce Development.
At the 2011 National
Speleological Society
Convention, Albert Ogden
(Geosciences) received Best of Show for a Karst educational
video he created along with Pat Jackson and Ty Whitaker
from Audio/Visual Services.
Ronald H. Aday (Sociology
and Anthropology) cowrote
Women Aging in Prison: A
Neglected Population in the
Correctional System (Lynne
Rienner Publishers) with
student Jennifer J. Krabill.
Felicia Miyakawa (Music) took
over as coeditor of a book series
from Indiana University Press
called Profiles in Popular Music.
Returning from Cortland
Repertory Theatre in upstate
New York, Professor Kyle Kennedy performed “A Murder
Is Announced”. Kennedy and
Kerby Thompson, producing
artistic director of the Cortland,
are working together to have
Thompson come to MTSU to
conduct workshops, visit classes,
and to discuss future internships.
Alvin Knox (English) is poetry
editor for the new literary
journal 2nd and Church.
Ron Bombardi (Philosophy)
published “Whose Blue? Class,
Race, and Gender in American
Vernacular Music” in Blues and
Philosophy, a recent volume in the popular Philosophy for Everyone series from Wiley-Blackwell.
Continued on page 26
College of Liberal Arts n Fall 2012
23
Geosciences News
Tucked away in nondescript Ezell Hall is a rare museum built stone by stone
by Drew Ruble
Growth of the MTSU Mineral,
Gem and Fossil Museum through
the years is perhaps
best attributed to Ogden’s
vision, sweat, and savvy
24
College of Liberal Arts n Fall 2012
photo: Andy Heidt
D
r. Albert Ogden can pinpoint the birth of his fascination
with geology. He was 10 years old,
bicycling up and down dirt roads in
his native Pennsylvania, when he
and his friends spotted fool’s gold
and other colorful minerals poking
up out of the ground. “We thought
it was treasure,” Ogden says.
Soon enough, the farmer who owned the
property approached the trespassing boys to
quiz them about their intentions. Upon
discovering their interest in rocks, the
farmer—a retired geologist and museum
curator—invited the boys back to his home
where he and his wife revealed a stunning
collection of beautiful gems from around the
world. Over the next few years, the farmer
would take Ogden and cohorts on gem,
mineral, and fossil digs all over their local area.
Ogden’s boyhood fascination with rock and
fossil hunting waned over the next few years.
“Then I took Earth Science in high school,”
Ogden says, “and I knew right then that
geology was for me.”
He earned his degree in geology from Penn
State University and eventually a Ph.D. in
hydrogeology from West Virginia University.
After stints at the University of Arkansas, the
Edwards Aquifer Research and Data Center
in Texas, the Idaho Division of Environment,
Tennessee Tech and Clemson University,
Ogden landed at MTSU.
It was in Murfreesboro that Ogden began
serious pursuit of his dream to open a small
mineral, gem, and fossil museum.
In 2005, using pieces from his
own collection to launch it, Ogden brought
his vision to life. Since then, he’s built the
campus-based collection through donations
both large and small and by smartly using
limited University funds. (Ogden annually
attends the world’s largest rock sale in
Tucson, Arizona; he puns that he acquires
new pieces for the collection at “rock
bottom” prices.) But the steady growth of the MTSU Mineral, Gem, and Fossil
Museum through the years is perhaps best attributed to Ogden’s vision, sweat, and savvy.
The result is the only museum of its kind in
the middle Tennessee area. Regionally
speaking, the closest approximation to
Curator Ogden’s campus museum is a lesser
collection of gems, minerals, and fossils
housed at the Pink Palace in Memphis.
On one recent visit to the museum, Ogden
and museum director Dr. Alan Brown (a
fellow MTSU geology professor who
recently took over operation of the museum),
were hosting a group of Boy Scouts working
to earn their merit badges in geology. Other
common visitors to the museum come from
Campus School, College Grove Elementary,
Siegel Elementary, Kittrell Elementary,
Woodbury Elementary, and Middle
Tennessee Christian School. Ogden says
museum attendance has skyrocketed in
recent years as a result of area home school
groups who are required by the state to take
science field trips and who have discovered
the free museum. “They really network to
find resources to help each other out,” Ogden says. “Word spread like wildfire last year.”
In all, Ogden says about 50 groups passed
through the museum last year. Importantly, the museum is a
University
educational
resource as well. More than 700
MTSU students take beginning geology
each semester and are
required to take a lab in the
museum as part of the curriculum.
What will happen to the museum when
Ogden retires in the next couple of years?
Ogden says he plans to continue to assist the
museum’s future growth both as a buyer for
the collection and as someone willing and
able to solicit donations large and small.
”Of course, I’m going to keep my fingers in it, plus I’ve got lots of connections, and I’m always talking the museum up
anyway,” he says. In addition to expressing
total confidence in Brown’s stewardship,
Ogden says the museum has strong support
of Mark Byrnes, dean of the College of
Liberal Arts. “Dean Byrnes even has his own
small, but nice rock collection,” Ogden says.
“It is really cool to have a dean that digs rocks
as I do!”
The museum also anticipates a visibility boost
in the coming years that might help its
prospects for longevity. Plans are afoot to
relocate the museum to a more conspicuous
location—one of the old science buildings—
once construction on MTSU’s new $126.7
million science building is completed.
Ogden can appreciate a rock ’n’ roll parlance,
as he is a lifelong musician and member of a
rock ’n’ roll band, that rocks. n
What’s inside?
Some of the more interesting items at the museum include
The museum has two
main exhibit rooms, one
with mineral specimens and
a second housing fossils, birthstones, jewelry made from semiprecious stones, and figurines carved from various minerals. A third, smaller black-light room displays
fluorescent minerals. Samples come from
every state in the union and from more than
50 countries around the world.
• a partial fossil of a prehistoric, tooth-filled, savage, 25-foot dolphin;
• a replica Allosaurus—a dinosaur that lived 145 to 155 million years ago during the late Jurassic period—that stands six feet tall and is 10 feet long;
• a collection of Tennessee fossils (and others from around the world);
• dinosaur excrement, which Ogden likes to have student visitors pass around a bit before he tells them what it is; dinosaur eggs; and dinosaur bones; and
• An eight-foot-long, museum-quality replica of a mastodon skull, replete with long tusks.
College of Liberal Arts n Fall 2012
25
Faculty News
Continued from page 23
Fulbright News
Mohammed Albakry (English) spent his
Fulbright grant in Morocco teaching in the new
M.A. program in linguistics at Mohammed V
University–Agadal for the past year. Albakry also
collected data for research on multilingualism
and identity politics in Morocco.
Sean Foley, associate professor of history, was a Fulbright
research scholar at the International Institute of Islamic Thought
and Civilization in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from September
2010 to December 2011. Foley’s third Fulbright, this time his
Rebecca McIntyre (History)
recently published her first
book, Souvenirs of the South:
Northern Tourism and Southern Mythology.
The summer 2011 issue of
American Archaeology contained
a review of Faking Ancient
Mesoamerica, a book by
Professor Nancy Kelker (Art).
The reviewer called the book a must-read for museum
professionals, collectors, and art historians. Professor Kelker’s coauthor was
Karen Bruhns.
David Lavery (English) and
Stacey Abbot, of Roehampton
University, London, coedited
TV Goes to Hell: An Unofficial
Road Map of Supernatural
(Toronto: ECW Press).
A
College of Liberal Arts n Fall 2012
Richard Pace is in Brazil on a Fulbright Scholarship for the year.
(See page 18)
Dawn McCormack (History)
had a terrific archaeological
season at Abydos, Egypt, where
she continues her research on
the excavated area. Students
working with McCormack were
Sara Rieger, Kristen Baldwin
Deathridge, Eden Fann, Alex
Collins, and Kerri Lorigan.
Outstanding Teacher Awards; a
Distinguished Research Award
went to Ron Aday (Sociology
and Anthropology); Don
Aliquo (Music) won a Creative
Activity Award; and John Vile
(University Honors, Political
Science) received the Career
Achievement Award.
Karen Petersen (Political
Science) and Basra Mohamed
(student) both published
chapters in a recent book titled Belgorad Dialogue 2011:
The Problems of Russia and
World History.
Xiaowei Shi (Speech and
Theatre) presented a paper that was selected as one of the top four at the 97th Annual Communication
Association Convention.
Five MTSU Foundation Awards
were presented to faculty in
Liberal Arts. Shannon C.
Hodge (Sociology and
Anthropology) and Virginia A.
Donnell (Theatre) received
ttack Ads, Super PACs, and Angry Voters: A Preview of the 2012 General Election, a symposium on negative political advertising, will take place in October at MTSU. (More information concerning this event will be on our webpage and Facebook page.) Kent Syler, a visiting assistant professor in the Political
Science Department and former congressional aide to Bart Gordon, will lead the discussion.
26
research focused specifically on the career and
correspondence of Shaykh Tahir Jalaluddin
(1869–1956), one of Southeast Asia’s leading
modern Islamic intellectuals. He also appeared as
an analyst on al-Jazeera English television three
times and wrote several opinion pieces for the
New Straits Times (Malaysia), The Tennessean,
Today’s Zaman (Turkey) and Atlantic Monthly
(an article on popular Lebanese-Swedish Muslim
singer Maher Zain). Visit www.seanfoley.org for more.
Many faculty members
were promoted or tenured. Patricia Bradley (English),
Tommy Macon (Speech and
Theatre), Kristine McCusker
(History), Paul Osterfield
(Music), and Todd Waldecker
(Music) were promoted to
professor. Erin Anfinson (Art), Andrea Dawson (Music), John Donovan (Art), Patricia Gaitely (English),
Mark Jackson (English), Phil Oliver (Philosophy),
Bonnie Rushlow (Art) were
promoted to associate professor.
Sean Foley (History) and
William Leggett (Sociology
and Anthropology) were
promoted to associate professor
and tenured.
Joan McRae (Foreign Languages
and Literatures) will serve as
chair of the MTSU Chairs
Council, succeeding Jackie Eller
(Sociology and Anthropology)
Steve Morris and Andrei
Korobkov (Political Science)
represented MTSU at the
Faculty News
Conference on Corruption in
Mexico, Russia, and the United
States. The conference took place
at Vanderbilt in October 2011
and was sponsored by MTSU
and Vanderbilt.
In 2010, Jid Lee (English) saw the publication of her
personal narrative, To Kill a Tiger: A Memoir of Korea
(Overlook Press).
James S. Gibson (Professor
Emeritus, Art) received the
Joseph A. Cain Memorial
Purchase Award at the 45th
Annual National Drawing and
Small Sculpture Show at Del Mar College, Corpus Christi,
Texas, for his welded sculpture
Ericka–Chendu (2009).
Tanya Peres Lemons
(Sociology and Anthropology)
led the MTSU Middle
Cumberland Archaeology
Project (MCAP) in May and
June, which investigated a
multicomponent shell midden
site occupied between 7000 BC
and AD 1400 on the west side
of Nashville. Twenty MTSU
students surveyed over ten
acres, sorted thousands of
artifacts and soil samples, and
began analysis of the material,
which they will complete in the coming fall and spring.
Michael Arndt (School of
Music) will be serving as the 2012–13 Faculty Senate
president, succeeding Kim Neal
Nofsinger (Speach and Theatre).
Doug Heffington received the
Faculty of the Year Award for
his work to foster a more global
campus through the MTSU
Office of International Affairs
and Office of Education
Abroad. He took a group of
students to Japan to help
broaden their views of the
world and to make a difference.
An English translation of the play
was produced by Mohammed
Albakry, MTSU associate
professor of applied linguistics,
and Rebekah Maggor, Vanderbilt
lecturer in English.
College of Liberal Arts 2012
retirees were Fred Beemon
(History), Barry Buxkamper
(Art), Frederic Crawford
(History), Martha Foster
(History), Janet Higgins (Art),
Elizabeth Nuell (Art), and
Sharon Shaw-McEwen (Social Work)
Christmas; Reed Thomas, who
conducted the music on Angels
in the Architecture; Don Aliquo
(saxophones), whose three titles
were Sun and Shield, Home at
Last, and the collaboration Back
When It Was Fun; and composer
Paul West Osterfield with Rocky Streams.
Richard Pace and Brian P.
Hinote (both Sociology and
Anthropology) are awaiting the
printing of Amazon Town TV:
An Audience Ethnography in the
Brazilian Amazon (University
of Texas Press). It is scheduled
for publication next year.
Four faculty members in the
School of Music had CDs
released in 2011: Deanna Little
(flute) with The Silver Sounds of
photo: Andy Heidt
I
n 2011, Middle Tennessee State University approved the mission statement for the
University. Pivotal to this mission is
partnering, and Debrah Sickler-Voigt (Art) takes partnering seriously. She has recently
been working with the Tennessee School for the Blind (TSB) and Monica Leister, a TBS teacher, who brought her class to campus to work with MTSU students on a
comprehensive art education project with
Sickler-Voigt’s practicum class. The MTSU
class, with instruction from Sickler-Voigt,
helped the TSB students create a shadow box
art project. Before starting, they learned about
two artists (O. L. Samuels and Louise
Nevelson) and their work. This gave them a springboard to create their own projects. In their second meeting on campus, MTSU
students asked TSB students about the artists
and their work.
Currently taking classes at MTSU to get a
certification in art education, Leister has been
asked by TSB to start an art program for the
school. TSB is an accredited K–12 institution,
where students are on different tracks. Some
are on the academic track, which means they
will have a chance to go on to college. MTSU
is happy to have two students from TSB
enrolled this semester. (Other TSB students
are on the life skills path, which offers courses
to help them in their everyday lives.)
At the end of the semester, the TSB students
returned to campus along with parents and
teachers for the unveiling of their artwork. n
College of Liberal Arts n Fall 2012
27
Alumni News
“Heads or Tails” is the title of
Socrates Garcia’s (music
alumnus and instructor, ’08)
new composition that
premiered at the Jazz
Education Network Annual
Conference in Louisville, Ky.
Jennifer Pickering (’10) and
Tommy Hartzog (’10) are
working on the Bangladesh
Program for Enhancement of
Emergency Response (PEER)
as graduate assistants at
Vanderbilt University. MTSU
geosciences labs will be used to
conduct geochemical analyses
of core samples collected
during fieldwork in
Bangladesh. The research will
be used to determine the
effects of climate change on
Himalayan rivers and South
Asia delta regions.
Aaron Shew (International
Relations, ’11) and Natalie
Shew recently lived in
Afghanistan, where Aaron
served three months as an
intern manager with SALT
International— a nonprofit
institution that sought him
out because of his work with
agriculture and in foreign
countries. Aaron assisted
farmers in converting soybeans
to flour for cooking. Natalie
served as an ESL teacher and
had a strong impact on the
women in the class. The
couple lived in a mud home
that provided little protection
from the weather. The Shews
say the experience was
worthwhile, and they were
able to really help in the short
time they were there. They are
now in northern Iraq, where
Aaron is building an
agriculture extension for
soybean production. When
their two- to three-year
commitment is over, Aaron
plans to work on a Ph.D. in
international relations, and
Natalie wants to continue
studying languages.
Continued on page 30
Hudson on the
Hudson
A Liberal Arts graduate once called
“a poet of place” by the New York Times earns the right to rest on her laurels.
Alice Hudson (’69) didn’t need a map to get from her hometown of Oak Ridge to
Murfreesboro or from Murfreesboro to New
York. All she needed was her love of
geography and a college education. On her
second summer trip to visit her sister in the
Big Apple in 1970, Hudson was hired as a
map cataloguer and reference librarian at the New York Public Library (NYPL). The rest is not only NYPL history—it is the history of New York.
By October 1981, Hudson was chief of the
Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map
Division of the New York Public Library
system. Its holdings include “more than
433,000 sheet maps and 20,000 books and
atlases published between the 15th and 21st
centuries,” according to NYPL.
28
College of Liberal Arts n Fall 2012
The New York Times, which once called
Hudson “a poet of place,” described
collection visitors as a hodgepodge of
builders, developers and architects, novelists,
and urban archaeologists—even “conspiracy
theorists decoding the World Trade Center
bombing.”
Hudson’s 1969 bachelor’s degree in
geography from MTSU served her well as
she navigated technological changes in both
cartography and library science over the
years. The brave new worlds of Google Earth
and MapQuest are not alien to Hudson. “I
think they’re a lot of fun because they
brought a lot more people to the importance
of geography and spatial relationships,”
Hudson says. Nevertheless, the librarian who
took her geography courses in Kirksey Old
by Gina K. Logue
Main retains a fondness for the tactile
sensation of holding a map, like a journalist
who won’t give up a subscription to the hard copy edition of the newspaper just because
it’s accessible online. Hudson says, “I like to have the map in my hand where I can see the entire map of the state of Tennessee,
not just a three-inch square in my car.”
Retired since July 2009, Hudson considers
her paramount achievement the cofounding
of a group called the Mercator Society to
raise money to expand and maintain the
library’s world-renowned map division.
According to the Times, the NYPL
collection, the largest in any public library in the country with the exception of the
Library of Congress, grew exponentially
during Hudson’s tenure. n
Alumni News
The Least Among Us
by Drew Ruble
A Liberal Arts graduate shows steady stewardship of the state
of Tennessee’s health care safety net for the poor and disabled
care. Gordon tracks the performance of
all managed care organizations (MCOs),
the insurance companies that provide
care to TennCare enrollees, to ensure
they are properly accredited and
performing in a manner comparable to
national benchmarks.
Darin Gordon
I
t’s no secret that TennCare, Tennessee’s Medicaid managed care program that
provides health coverage for 1.2 million
low-income children, pregnant women,
and disabled individuals, has had a
somewhat problematic existence during
its more than 15 years of service.
Those days, however, seem to have been left in the past. Under the leadership of Darin Gordon (’95), a former MTSU
political science major, the program has made significant advancements over the past several years, including increasing
client satisfaction and getting on a sound
fiscal administrative footing.
“TennCare has been successful in
addressing a problem that the entire
health care industry deals with today:
containing rising costs while improving
quality of care,” Gordon says. “The
management team has taken TennCare
from a position that was poised to
bankrupt the state to being a fiscally
stabilized program with an enrollee
satisfaction rate of 95 percent. Moving
forward, there are many uncertainties as
to what the national and state health care
landscape will look like. Our job is to
position ourselves and the state to be
prepared for as many scenarios as
possible. Regardless of what becomes of
national health reform, TennCare will
continue to play a significant and
important role in access to health care for
many Tennesseans. TennCare’s goals will
remain the same: we must continue to
deliver high quality, cost-effective care
that results in improved health and
quality of life for our members.” Gordon, who is director of the TennCare Bureau and deputy
commissioner of the Department of
Finance and
Administration,
manages a program
addressing a problem that the entire
that deals directly
health care industry deals with
with personal health
TennCare has been successful in
today:
containing rising cost while
improving quality of care
There’s no better proof of Gordon’s good
stewardship of the program than his
survival during the biggest political sea
change in Tennessee since
Reconstruction. Following the
Republican takeover of the state House,
Senate, and Governor’s Mansion, one
might have thought a change in
leadership at TennCare would follow.
But that hasn’t been the case. Gordon,
appointed to his current post under
former Democratic governor Phil
Bredesen, has remained at the helm of
the massive health care program even
after the election of Republican governor
Bill Haslam. TennCare had 10 directors
in the previous 12 years before Gordon’s
appointment in 2006.
“I feel very fortunate for my time at
MTSU,” he says. “This university fosters
an extraordinary learning environment,
and during my time there I was lucky
enough to have professors who
continuously pushed me to expand my
horizons, to challenge myself, and to
accept nothing short of my best
performance. In fact, I credit Dr. Mark
Byrnes in the Political Science
Department with being the catalyst who
set me on my current professional path. Dr. Byrnes encouraged me to compete
for a government internship that led me
to where I am today. In my current role
as director of TennCare, I continue to
strive for those same personal goals with
the added benefit of being able to help so
many others at the same time.” n
College of Liberal Arts n Fall 2012
29
Meet the
Continued from page 28
Guitarist and School Music alumnus Silviu Ciulei (B.M., 2008) won prizes
in seven international competitions
during 2011–12. He also won second
prize in the Eastern Carolina University
competition. Earlier this year, Ciulei
was selected as a finalist and won third
prize in the Guitar Foundation of
America International Concert Artists
Competition in Charleston, S.C., the most prestigious guitar competition in the nation and one of the most eminent in the world. Competing with
Ciulei were finalists from Russia, Turkey, and Mexico.
Earlier this year, he was a semifinalist in the Christopher
Parkening International Guitar Competition, first-prize
winner of the Appalachian Guitarfest at Appalachian State University in N.C., and first-prize winner at the
Columbus, Ga. Guitar Competition. He won second prize in the Texas International Guitar Competition and third prize in the Schadt Concerto Competition,
Guitar Foundation of America. Ciulei is a doctoral student at Florida State University.
“Queen” is coming to North America! No, not the Queen
of England, the Queen Extravaganza Tour. Playing drums
will be Tyler Warren (’08). After a ten-week tryout, Warren
was named drummer for the authorized cover band by
original drummer Roger Taylor. Taylor knew there were
cover bands out there playing Queen’s music, so he figured
why not select the very best to play the British rock band’s
music, which brought them celebrity and number-one
songs. Warren will be playing a 15-month concert tour,
which will include these and many other songs. He’ll
mainly be playing drums, but he’ll play other instruments,
too. He gives credit to his professors Lalo Davila and
Tommy Giampietro for their guidance and his success.
Look for a show near you.
Friends of Liberal Arts Board
The board works to cultivate and maintain relationships with
community, state, and national leaders; promote the achievements of СLA faculty and students, as well as overall public image; expose
students to various career options; serve as mentors to those
students; and pursue external funding.
Lauren Agee, B.A. (Political
Science) 2001; senior legislative
advisor to State Senator Jim
Kyle; 2009 Young Alumni
Achievement Award recipient.
James Brooks, retired CLA
associate dean and Department
of Speech and Theatre chair;
30-year faculty member;
Professor Emeritus (2001).
Charlotte Gardner, B.A. (English) 1958;
community volunteer and
dedicated MTSU supporter
(School of Music Orpheus
Competition).
S. A. Habib, B.F.A. (Art/Graphic Design)
1977;founder/owner,
Nashville-based Locomotion
Creative marketing firm.
Phillip Hodge, B.S.
Anthropology (1997);
archaeologist supervisor,
Tennessee Department of
Transportation.
Bill Ketron, B.A. History
(1976); state senator and
insurance agent; helped found Blue Raider Athletic
Association (BRAA).
Joe Klingenmeyer, MTSU
supporter and parent; owner,
Culver’s restaurant; board
member, Linse Bock
Foundation, which funds School
of Music scholarship.
30
College of Liberal Arts n Fall 2012
Devin McClendon, B.A.
Political Science (1996);
commercial real estate/political
fundraising; past president
MTSU Alumni Association;
former board member MTSU
Foundation and BRAA.
Rick Mansfield, B.A. History
(1980); MTSU parent and
Murfreesboro attorney; vice
chair, Friends of Liberal
Arts board.
Phyllis Murray Martin, B.A. (Speech and Theatre)
1975; current president, MTSU Foundation.
Alice Nunnery, M.A. English
(1983); retired English professor.
William Windham, retired
faculty member and Department
of History chair; established in
1990 the Windham Lecture
Series, which brings a prominent
speaker to MTSU each year.
Doug Young, B.A. Sociology
(1971), owner/operator, City
Tile in Murfreesboro; city
council member; MTSU
Alumni Association board
member; former MTSU
Foundation member; Chair, Friends of
Liberal Arts board.
Matt Hibdon, MTSU Honors Student,
History major, Graduate May 2012
In Memoriam
During academic year 2011–12, the College of Liberal Arts lost five distinguished colleagues.
Charles Jackson Dean, associate professor emeritus of the Department of
English, passed away December 1, 2011 at his home. After completing his
B.A. and B.D. degrees from Vanderbilt Divinity School, he studied for a
year at Durham University in England. Mr. Dean received his M.A. from
Columbia University in New York and came to Murfreesboro in 1962. He taught at MTSU for 42 years before retiring in 2004. He is survived by his wife, Mary Frances “Fran” Wright Dean; son, David Dean; brother,
Bill Dean; and sister, Joann Rochester.
Virginia Fowler (secretary in the Geography and Geology Department, now Geosciences)
passed away recently. Mrs. Fowler served the department from 1970 to 1996, under chairs
Ralph Fullerton and William Kohland.
William H. Holland Jr., who joined the English faculty in 1966 and retired in 1993, passed away at his home in Bastrop, Texas, on January 23,
2012. He received his B.A. in English from Millsaps College, where he wa a member of ODK Leadership Fraternity and Pi Kappa Alpha social
fraternity and was editor of the literary magazine and the yearbook. He
joined the army during the Korean War and was stationed in Germany,
where he used his word skills as a code breaker. He received his master’s
degree from the University of Mississippi and his doctorate in English from
the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. He is survived by his wife, Anne S. Holland; son, James
E. Holland (Anna); sister, Shirley H. Carley; daughters, Mary T. Hatcliff (Pat) and Carolyne
Raney (Eric) and D’Arcy Simpson (Chuck); daughter-in-law, Patricia K. Holland; stepson
W.M. Holmes (Donna); 11 grandchildren; and 2 great-grandchildren.
Jerry Ross Perkins (School of Music) passed away September 29, 2011. Dr. Perkins taught piano at MTSU for 40 years. He received his bachelor
and master of music degrees from the College-Conservatory of Music of the University of Cincinnati on a University Honor scholarship. He
received his doctorate at Boston University. Dr. Perkins cofounded the
Stones River Chamber Players and served as its artistic director for many
years. He is survived by his sons, Curt and Eliot, and his partner, Jon
Howard.
Professor Emeritus Jack Justin Turner, who taught in the Political Science
Department for 35 years, passed away December 29, 2011, in Lexington,
Kentucky. Dr. Turner received his undergraduate degree from Berea
College and his Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky. He primarily
taught international relations at MTSU. After retirement, he wrote a series
of novels set in his beloved Kentucky and a history/memoir, Maytown Magic and Mayhem: Fifty Years of Mountain Basketball. He is survived by his wife, Judith ( Judy) Gibson Turner, hundreds of successful former
students, many friends, and a loving family.
College of Liberal Arts n Fall 2012
31
Non-profit
Organization
U. S. Postage
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Permit 893
Nashville, TN
1301 E. Main Street
Murfreesboro TN 37132
Visit www.mtsuarts.com for more information on performances occurring on the campus of MTSU.
All music events will be held in Hinton Music Hall, Wright Music Building unless otherwise noted.
Throughout the semester, visit ongoing student art exhibitions in the Todd Art Gallery.
See the calendar insert in this magazine for more information.
Painting by Damaris Ruiz, MTSU Art student